Pain, Reflection, Progression

At a recent speaking event with macroeconomic expert and author Ray Dalio, he made the profound statement, "Pain, reflection, progression". Contextually, this was for learning from mistakes in business and the changing economic market but I drew a direct line to the pain and progression of physical healing.

Whether you've had an injury or gone through physical therapy, you'll know that pain is a signal from your body that something bad has, or may happen. Often with an injury, take a minor ankle sprain for example, pain indicates that a tissue has been stretched or damaged. Each step that you take is a reminder from the receptors in your ankle to your brain that "something's going on here". After a day or two, as the swelling decreases and function returns, the receptors may be sending warning signals to try to reduce the chance of moving it like that again and causing re-injury.

We have to reflect and retrain our body to quiet those receptors from their quick-to-fire mentality. Only by reflecting, seeing, and believing that we have pain-free functional movement can progression occur.

Quite often chiropractors see patients with chronic pain that feel as though progression may be too slow or not happen for them. This could be from skipping over the reflection phase of their healing or attributing negative reflection to their healing. Good reflection sees how much improvement and change is occurring after injury, even if it’s small steps forward. Negative reflection is seeing those small steps and believing that there’s no point because it may not ever get back to perfect. Good reflection builds healing, negative reflection reaffirms pain.

Simply being aware and noting progress in movement can allow for great reflection after an injury. This build-up in movement confidence can reduce the pain cycle in the short and long term. It is essential therefore to be leaders of positive reflection for as you go through hands on and at home care.

Stay moving, stay reflective,

Dr. Cole Maranger, DC